


A Song of River

by horusporus



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-05
Updated: 2011-04-05
Packaged: 2017-10-17 15:24:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/178268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/horusporus/pseuds/horusporus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This could be how River met the Doctor. (it's a bit like a timey wimey death pact, but not really.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Song of River

**Author's Note:**

> written circa Series 5; assumes spoilers for all seasons up to then, especially SitL/FotD and ToA/F&S

Helios, true to its name, was hellishly hot. She wiped the sweat of her brow, and made a note to re-drench her headscarf in a minute. Two weeks in, and though her excitement had only dimmed a little, under the crushing heat of the twin afternoon suns even her optimism had to wilt. The fine blue silica in the minute of updraft grated against her cheeks, and she adjusted her mouthpiece -- she couldn't risk another episode of indigo lung, not when her scholarship was nearing the end of its funds. She needed something viable before she could go shopping for funding again.

"What have you got there?" There was a man, poking at her ruins unconcernedly, ill-equipped for the occasion except for perhaps the shoddily worn mouthpiece. He was tall and solidly built, dark red-gold hair streaked liberally with silver. He dressed as unfashionably as the dean (or as fashionably as her niece, but he's neither that young nor that old) of her school, and he was _ruining her work_.

"What are you doing?" she demanded. The man continued to ignore her. She huffed and marched towards him. "Oi!" His eyes lit up in surprise as he was forcefully turned around from his very interested perusal of the dig.

"Hello, sweetie!" he exclaimed, clasping her shoulders.

"I beg your pardon!"

\-------------------

The unmistakable buzz was right at the door of her cell, but it can't be...

"I'm the Doctor, I'm here to save you." He was practically vibrating with either emergency or excitement, and five days ago, she had stabbed him twice in the chest with the irradiated blade of Elpis.

"I killed you," was all she could say. She felt frozen and cold, pure surprise running in her veins.

"River Hester Song, in five minutes you will be sentenced to life imprisonment in the Storm Cage Facility. I'm the Doctor, trust me?"

In reply she punched him. "I killed you!" she screamed.

"Did you," he asked vaguely as he massaged his jaw. "I thought as much, but I never wanted to dwell on those kind of things. Did I die with this face? Was it -- no, no. Spoilers!"

"What are you?" she asked, feeling afraid of him for the first time in her life.

"A little bit magic," he answered, grasping her hand. "Now, come on!"

\------------------

"You know, I never quite forgave you for leaving me in the 51st century."

"You liked it," he said airily.

"Yes, right until they arrested me!" She wouldn't deny that it was a sore point. When here he was, skipping along as though there was nothing wrong at all. She nearly bumped into him when he abruptly stopped.

"River," he said gently, "which part of time-travelling did you not understand?"

\-----------------

 _He said to her, before she plunged the blade deep into his two hearts, "thank you."_

\-----------------

They were in the TARDIS, taking a breather after yet another Dalek encounter. They were shoulder to shoulder, heads leaning to each other.

One breath. Two. Three breaths.

She turned towards him, "I want to know everything. I deserve it, I think."

He looked at her solemnly, "Yes, yes you do."

\----------------

The next day she started a new project. She hauled down the basket that was hidden behind the hatboxes, and pulled out the spool of waxed silk thread and a heavy needle. The Doctor said nothing when she rummaged through their things, searching for the papyrus scrolls she had bartered her earring away at Egypt Minor.

He continued to say nothing as she banged about and pottered around, not even to insult her lo-fi solution.

Travelling through time meant travelling through various input ports and data formats. At the end of the day, the book was the thing. The only parsing engine that she needed was her mind.

She was nearly done when he showed up with two things: two thin boards in blue, and a fountain pen with a solid gold nib, fine point.

"That's a quantum state ink cartridge in there," he gestured to the pen, somewhat shyly. "Should last you for a hundred years."

"Only a hundred?" she asked archly.

"That's why I got you refills," he said with a grin, a small slim case in his hand.

\-----------------

The day she greeted him "Hello sweetie" in Atraxii, he announced, "We're going to Gallifrey."

"But I thought you time-locked it."

"If you're as brilliant as I am, who says you can't unlock it?"

"Indeed," she said wryly.

\-----------------

Between the 20th and 51st century of Western Earth, it was hard to say which one was the Doctor's favourite. As for herself, she'd prefer to go further than the 20th if she could, to grasp at the things that were lost to history by the time the 23rd century rolled around. But the Doctor's all about the present and looking upwards, never to the ground and beneath it like she'd been trained to do.

This time around they'd compromised and were now enjoying the sky of the newly christened New Earth, circa the 32nd century.

It was still early days but even then the ambient light was well on its way in drowning out the stars. Still, in the murk, she could hear him thinking. Tick-tock, tick-tock, like a neverending turn on some Gallifreyan key-moppet.

"I could hear you thinking," he said, in the dark.

"I have to go back."

"I know."

She rolled on her side, facing him. She felt desperate to be understood. "I have to. It's only right. I-- I know so much now and I feel like such a small insect being here, getting away with it."

"Don't knock insects. Have you forgotten the swarm of Sh'nth?"

"Don't change the subject."

He still won't look at her.

\------------------

 _He said, just before that, "it has been a pleasure knowing you, Dr. Song."_

\------------------

"Will I see you again?"

"Of course, sweetheart. I reckon you'd be seeing more of me," he grinned at his own joke. "Maybe I'll even help you out of this place fair and square," he said with a wink.

She rolled her eyes. "You're insufferable."

"I'm brilliant."

"And they're coming." Faintly they could here the footsteps of the approaching guards. "Shoo! And don't forget the stabilisers this time!"

\-------------------

Two more encounters, after the Angels, before the Shadow Proclamation declared her eligible for full pardon. He was the Doctor, but he wasn't her Doctor. But two weeks into her attachment with the university, he showed up again, at dawn in her garden, sipping tea and casually reading her class material.

"Congratulations, Professor." He saluted her with his teacup.

"I see you've opened my Only-for-Special-Occassion biscuits."

"Well, this is a special occassion."

"Oh?"

"I'm taking you to Darillium. But before that," he passed her the box with flourish.

The only thing she could say once she took a good look at the contents, and satisfied that she wasn't imagining things, "I feel underdressed for the occasion."

He kissed her on the cheek. Another surprise.

"I reckon it'd come in handy some day."

And they sat together watching the sunrise. She left him all the jammy dodgers in the tin.

END


End file.
